The Asian Studies Center has developed the following curriculum components for K-14 educator professional development and classroom use. Please access the modules by clicking on the titles below.
Africa-China Relationship and its Global Impact These resources explore the history, current status, and future of Africa and China's relationship through a global lens, providing examples of not only Chinese investments in infrastructure in Africa, but from other regions such as Europe, as well. The resources offer teaching strategies and resources for K-12 classroom use.
Centering Taiwan in Global Asia This curriculum presentation examines the island of Taiwan's rich and compelling historical narrative as well as the important role it plays in today's geopolitical and economic landscape. It also includes strategies for incorporating the study of Taiwan into the K-12 classroom with the award-winning interactive curriculum resource website, Centering Taiwan in Global Asia.
China/Avant-Garde: Exploring Modern China Through Art Explore Modern China through the lens of art. China/Avant-Garde: Exploring Modern China through Art is the first in a series of online modules as part of our new Pennsylvania Teaching International Studies Through the Arts initiative. The module will provide access to view two documentaries—Inner Visions: Avant-Garde Art in China (1993) and Art in Smog (2018), an interview with the filmmaker Lydia Chen, and a curriculum guide for integrating the material into your classroom.
Crisis in Context: Navigating the Past and Future of Hong Kong Learn about the most recent developments and status of Hong Kong with this self-paced, asynchronous curriculum module, which provides educators with historical context, recorded lectures by Hong Kong legal scholars, books and materials.
Curriculum Strategies for Cindy Pon's Want: Global Issues Through Literature This curriculum component shares strategies for incorporating the history of Taiwan and themes related to the science fiction fantasy genre through the YA novel, Want.
Ecological Civilization: Exploring China as a Model This PPT provides an historical overview of China's relationship with the environment and ways to integrate it into the K-14 classroom.
Exploring the Asian Diaspora: Literary and Historical Perspectives on Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again This PowerPoint provides historical context and K-14 classroom applications for Lai's award-winning book of poems that chronicle the Vietnam War through the eyes of 10-year-old Ha, whose family flees Saigon for the promise of a better life in the United States. The hardships endured by Ha and her family during the war fade into the past as they struggle to adjust to a new way of life in America—one that is often at odds with the promise of their new country.
Exploring the Asian Diaspora: Nailed It Nearly two million Vietnamese immigrants escaped to the United States in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, many of them prospering in America's $8 billion nail economy. The PowerPoint from this K-14 educator workshop provides historical context about the American War in Vietnam and the diaspora of Vietnamese immigrants that followed.
Hunter School Curriculum Component: Global Issues Through Literature The theme of Globalizing Marginalized Voices is explored through the book Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong. This book shares Ahronglong's recollections, folklore, and autobiographical stories from the perspective of an Indigenous Taiwanese man trying to reconnect with his lost tribal identity.
In a League of Their Own: Exploring Taiwan's Colonial Past through the Baseball Film, Kano This curriculum module explores the history of Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule through the baseball film, Kano. The film depicts the true story of the Kagi Agricultural and Forestry School (Kano) baseball team, an underdog, multi-ethnic team of Chinese, Indigenous Taiwanese, and Japanese high school players, who defied the odds to reach the 1931 Japanese High School Baseball Championship. While Korea’s experience as a Japanese colony is often discussed in textbooks, the module looks to highlight the unique contours of Taiwan’s colonial experience as well as how it is remembered in the island today. The module includes a discussion of the history of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan and how memories of colonialism shape Taiwanese identity.
Media and Mediation in East Asia: Historical and Pedagogical Applications for the K-14 Classroom Offered in conjunction with the Asian Studies Center’s Summer Institute for East Asian Studies on "Media and Mediation in East Asia: Assemblages and Global Flows," this interactive timeline uses the example of China as a case study to explore the history and role of media throughout East Asia's varied past and present.
Reimagining the World of Art through Story and Collaboration: Flying Paintings the Zhou Brothers, A Story of Revolution and Art This recorded workshop presentation by children’s book author Amy Alznauer, provides K-12 educators with themes, website resources, and teaching tools to incorporate into the classroom from her book about two brothers who persevere through the upheaval of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1970s by painting together.
Reimagining the World of Numbers: The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity This recorded workshop presentation by children’s book author Amy Alznauer provides K-5 educators with creative ways to incorporate interdisciplinary learning into their classroom through the story of the renowned Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Summer Screenshots: Hot Nights and Cold War--Journey From the Fall This K-14 curriculum component provides historical context and strategies to incorporate themes from director Ham Tran’s film, Journey From the Fall, which depicts the story of one Vietnamese family's struggle in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The curriculum includes a recorded Q&A with director Ham Tran.
Summer Screenshots: Hot Nights and Cold War--Songs from the North This K-14 curriculum component provides historical context and strategies to incorporate themes from director Soon-Mi Yoo’s documentary, Songs from the North, whose footage is the result of the three separate visits that Soon made to North Korea under the strict supervision of state-supplied guides.
Summer Screenshots: Hot Nights and Cold War--The Missing Picture This K-14 curriculum component provides historical context and strategies to incorporate the themes from director Rithy Panh’s autobiographical documentary, The Missing Picture, into the K-14 classroom. The film recounts Panh's childhood in Cambodia during the brutal takeover by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
Tell Me About Asia: A Conversation with Dr. Tonio Andrade In this Q and A, Dr. Tonio Andrade, Professor of Chinese History and Global History at Emory University, discusses Qing dynasty China and its diplomatic and trade relations with the British and the Dutch.
Tell Me About Asia: A Conversation with Dr. Ian Miller In this Q and A, Dr. Ian Miller, Professor of History at Harvard University, and Mr. Matthew Sudnik, ethics and comparative religion teacher at Georgetown Preparatory School, discuss the history of energy in Japan, including its early electrification, its use of coal and nuclear energy, and the challenges that climate change presents to Japan today.
To Swim Across the World: A Global Issues Through Literature K-12 Curriculum Component This PPT shares ways to teach about the topic of migration and diaspora through the true story of "To Swim Across the World" authors Frances and Ginger Park's parents Sei-Young and Heisook Park.